The night I wasn't at The Oscars...

Today, March 1st, is St David's Day. If you are Welsh, this makes it a special day. If you are English, like me, it's an excuse to post a photo of the first daffodil to bloom in our garden! I took this at 8am this morning...beautiful thing! It's actually a miniature tete-a-tete...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony took place on Sunday night...or in the early hours of Monday morning here. For as long as I can remember, I've stayed up all night to watch the Oscars live. Esther & I used to watch it together...now we are 10 hours apart, we use our weekly chat to dissect each outfit and award, as it's broadcast in Australia in it's entirety on Monday night...

I used to be able to watch it at home as it was traditionally broadcast on the BBC. These were the best years. Wrapped in a duvet, in my pyjamas, fortified with tea and the odd chocolate bar I would bathe in the glamour of Hollywood.
Then Sky TV bought the rights. For those of you that don't know, this is a satellite subscription company. We don't have satellite tv. So it became much more difficult. For the past few years, I've driven to my parent's farm at 11pm, said goodnight to them and set myself up in their study (where the little tv is) to watch before letting myself out at 5am and driving home. The dogs are always so bewildered as they look up at me through the night from their cosy beds!
This year, it just felt like too much trouble to go over there...I was tired anyway and  knew I had such a busy baking day to come that driving home the 15 miles at 5am was a horrible thought! So I arranged to watch at our good friend David's house. His garden backs onto ours (we wave!) Paul has spare keys to his house at the office (we keep lots of our friends spare keys there as they're always locking themselves out!) so it was decided that I'd use these to let myself in at 1am. David went to bed, leaving the TV all set on the right channel (with the sound turned down) so I wouldn't need to fiddle with the remote. He also left an electric heater on for me as the central heating would be off, so I wouldn't be cold (nice friend!)
Paul kissed me goodnight at 10.30, shaking his head & chuckling as he always does...he hates award shows & thinks I'm quite deranged to spend the night watching one. I was tired and debated whether to take a short nap....but I decided that I'd feel worse having slept for 2 hours and woken up than if I stayed awake to begin with. So I forced through the fatigue until 1am. Then I got ready. Brushed my teeth, put on an extra cosy sweater and woolly socks. Gathered a favourite plaid blanket to wrap in, plus an apple & a chocolate bar for snacks. Said goodnight to Alice, picked up house keys & David's keys and let myself quietly out of the front door.
The night was so dark and quiet...nothing seemed to stir as I crept around the church square and into the next street. I walked up the steps to David's front door...it looked so warm and inviting in there! Through the open blinds I could see the reflection of the TV flickering, the side lamps pooling their golden light, the heater warming the air. This was it! My favourite night of the year...would King Colin lift the statuette? What would Nicole, Halle & Cate be wearing...how was Natalie's bump looking? All these thoughts and more coursed through my brain as I put the key in the lock of the door. Only to find that....IT WAS THE WRONG KEY!!! I tried 4 times, as I couldn't quite believe it. But there was no mistake. There was no way I could wake Dave at 1.15am. So, after pushing an explanatory note through the letterbox, I did the only thing I could and went home to bed!
The last thing I saw, from my bathroom window at 1.30, were the flickering, tantalising images of the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony across the silent gardens, playing to no one in David's front room. We don't even have a telescope!
And I woke, tired from losing 4 hours sleep, yesterday morning to the news that Colin Firth had indeed won the Oscar. And me not there to see it!
Next year, I've decided to be IN the USA to watch, live and at a decent time!!

I'll leave you with another image of Spring that I took in the churchyard this morning....crocuses, like jewels in the grass. They cheered me up no end! Happy Tuesday xoxo